Quest for new city manager continues

The city of Tyler continues to move forward in its search for the next city manager.

Mayor Martin Heines said the city reached an agreement with Keller-based Strategic Government Resources to help conduct the city manager search, so Ron Holifield, founder and CEO of SGR, came to Tyler and spent hours Thursday meeting with city officials.

He said Holifield talked about the search process and then met with each councilman to ensure he was able to ask each of them what his interests and desires were in the next city manager.

“It was important that all of the council members be able to have that personal time to express what was important to their districts and their view for the community as a whole,” Heines said.

It’s also important for Holifield to receive input on the values of our community as he begins the advertising for the position and getting people to have interest in the job, he said.

Next, he said the job opening will go through the advertising process and candidates will be reviewed. He said interviewing occurs later in the search process.

Councilman Mark Whatley previously said it has been determined that in the end, Tyler will have a large pool of well-qualified candidates and is going to be able to get a very good city manager.

“We all take very serious our role as representatives of the community … to make sure that we’re all involved in the process to make sure that the most critical position in city government is filled by someone who reflects our beliefs and our core values,” Heines said.

Former City Manager Mark McDaniel took an assistant city manager position with the city of Dallas, and Susan Guthrie currently serves as Tyler’s interim city manager.